10 Developments

New Delhi: As the 23-year-old Delhi gang-rape survivor battles for life in a Singapore super-speciality hospital, some 200 people have begun a peaceful march from the Capital's Nizamuddin area to protest against the brutal attack on the girl and demand stringent punishment in rape cases. The Delhi Police have blocked roads from Nizamuddin to India Gate, where the protesters plan to go. Prohibitory orders are in place at Rajpath and India Gate.

Here are the 10 latest developments in the case:

The protesters, mostly young students and women, say the march would be peaceful. One of them demanded that Delhi police chief Neeraj Kumar be sacked and an estimated one lakh rape trials pending in the country be taken up by fast-track courts.

The gang-rape survivor, Amanat (NOT her real name), was flown to Singapore last night on the advice of top doctors. She is being treated at the Mount Elizabeth Hospital there, which specialises in multi-organ transplants. Her family and a team of doctors have travelled with her. Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said, "The girl has reached hospital, and has been admitted there. She is stable." (Read)

PTI has quoted a spokesman at the Mount Elizabeth Hospital as saying, "The patient arrived at Mount Elizabeth Hospital's Intensive Care Unit this morning in an extremely critical condition. She is being examined and the hospital is working with the Indian High Commission. We request that the privacy of the patient and family be respected."

The medical student, who was gang-raped and tortured by six men on a moving bus on the night of December 16, has left India amid seething public fury. Protesters have planned to march from Nizamuddin to India Gate in Delhi today to keep alive their movement and to press for tougher anti-rape laws.

The India Gate area is still under prohibitory orders, which forbid a gathering of more than five people at one spot. It was the site of violent clashes between the police and protesters last weekend and massive security has been in place since. The protesters have promised a peaceful march.

The Crime Branch, which was asked yesterday to investigate how a Delhi Police constable, Subhash Tomar, died, has summoned two witnesses who saw the policeman fall to the ground during Sunday's clashes at India Gate. A post-mortem report has said Mr Tomar died of injuries from blunt objects. But the two eyewitnesses, both photographed as they helped Mr Tomar, offer a different account - they say he collapsed as he was chasing protesters. (Read: Eyewitnesses asked to join investigations)

The confusion was exacerbated by doctors who said that Mr Tomar did not have any "major" external injuries and that only a post-mortem would determine what caused his death. It was this discrepancy that prompted the Home Ministry to ask the police for a detailed report on the circumstances in which Mr Tomar was killed and the case was assigned to the Delhi Crime Branch.

Delhi Police chief Neeraj Kumar deposed before a parliamentary standing committee on crime against women in the Capital and said more women constables would be inducted into the force.

The Centre yesterday announced that a commission of inquiry, headed by a woman judge, will identify the lapses that allowed the brutal gang-rape and also fix responsibility for these lapses. It will also suggest measures to ensure better safety of women.

The gang-rape has provoked national outrage and widespread protests in Delhi as well as other parts of the country. But 10 days and many protests later, another woman has been gang-raped in a car and dumped in Kalkaji. Police claim that the woman, who belongs to Jaipur, was raped somewhere in Vrindavan and dumped in south-east Delhi's Kalkaji area last night. (Read)